It seems lately that more shows are having characters get their gay on.

Two "straight" characters on two different TV shows have same-sex experiences recently--OK, chaste, harmless experiments. On "Heroes" immortal cheerleader Clare Bennett, played by Hayden Panettiere, shared a kiss with Gretchen, her college roommate. On "Gossip Girl" manipulative antagonist Chuck Bass locked lips with a tertiary character named Josh. Both main characters--Claire and Chuck--were passive participants in these closed-mouth kisses. There was no reciprocal smooching going on.  Claire seemed afraid and Chuck seemed bored--but maybe that's just Ed Westwick's poor acting.

Is this same-sex smooching something the gay community should celebrate? It brings homosexuality and bisexuality to the forefront on TV. Or should the community admonish the showrunners for using gay story lines only for shock value to increase ratings?

Prime-time dramas are not altruistic in their nature. They are meant to entertain first and to educate second. They aren't necessarily creating gay characters or scripting gay incidents because they want to represent our community; although some are making better efforts than others. For example, a supporting character on "Law & Order: SVU" came out of the closet during the recent episode to make a point that being gay isn't a choice and shouldn't be compared to being a pedophile.

Including a main character who is gay, lesbian or bisexual is a lot different than having a character "go gay" for one episode just to get a ratings boost. Shows such as "Brothers & Sisters" and "Glee" present gay characters as series regulars. When the Kurt character came out on "Glee," it wasn't a stunt for ratings. It happened organically.

Most of the time these kissing stunts happen once and are never mentioned again. Claire was shocked that her roomie confessed a crush, but it's come up only briefly since. While it's too early to tell if "Gossip Girl's" Chuck will end up bisexual, like the character in the book series is, he did deliver the line, "You really think I haven't kissed a guy before?" indicating he may have experimented in the past.

Ultimately, I think showing a same-sex kiss on TV is a good thing, even if it's done in the name of ratings. TV hypes straight kisses all the time; at least we are being treated equally. The next over-hyped ratings stunt on "Gossip Girl" will be a much-rumored threesome. It's obviously going to have one same-sex pairing, since that's how threesomes work, unless it ends up being a girl, a guy and a blow-up doll.

Either way, people will watch.